Lupercalia

The festival of the Lupercalia ( 15 February ) is of particular interest, especially as the use of the Salt Wafer (Mola Salsa) is one of its principa features. This festival was initiated according to Pliny by Numa "Numa first established the custom of offering corn to the gods, and of propitiating them with the salted cake." (Pliny, 18,2.) The Luperci were priests of Pan, their origin being ascribed to Numa. They had to sacrifice dogs and goats to their special deity. This festival was held in February, which month has its name from Februo=I purify. The people assembled at the "Lupercal" a cave at the foot of the SW corner of the Palatine; the word seems and was popularly held to be connected with Lupus, a wolf, in commemoration of the wolf that suckold Romulus and Remus. Sacrifice was made of goats and dogs, which were quite unusual victims, to mark, perhaps the solemnity of the occasion. A feature of the sacrifice was the Mola Salsa (salt wafer), which had been prepared by the Vestals from the earliest ears of the last years harvest. Two youths of high rank, one from each of the two colleges of Luperci, were brought forward and their forheads were smeared in blood, which was regarded as essential. These noble youths were each at the head of a company of young men. After an ample banquet they each ran around the Palatine carrying strips of skin (februa) taken from the victims. With these they belaboured any women they met. The following passage from Shakespeare ( Julius caesar, actI, Sc.2) explains the reason for this custom:


Caesar. "Calphurnia !"
Calp.   "Here, my Lord."
Caes.   "Stand you directly in Antonius' way
	When he doth run his course-Antonius!"
Ant.	"Forget not in your speed Antonius,
	"To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say,
	"The barren, touched in this holy chase,
        " Shake off their sterile curse."

Cicero (Phil.,II,84) refers to the behaviour of Anthony at this feast: " But lest by chance, out of a long list of actions of Anthony my speach should miss one most priceless incident, let us proceed to the Lupercalia. He makes no concealment, My Lords. It seems he is embarassed; he is sweating, he is pale. Let him do anything he likes as long as he does not vomit as he did in the Porch of Minucius. What excuse can there be for such a disgusting act. I want to hear, in order to see where the enormous wage paid to his oratorical tutor comes in. Your colleague was sitting on the rostrum,draped in a purple gown on a golden seat, crowned with wreath." ( Then comes the famous offer of a crown to Caesar.) (ib.,III,12.) " And certainly you ought not to have counted Anthony as consul after the Lupercalia; for on that day, in full view of the Roman public, naked, perfumed, drunk, he made his speech and he did so to place the crown on the head of his colleague. On that day, he resigned not only the consulship but even his claim to freedom." Plutarch (Caesar, 61) describes the licentious proceedings at the Lupercalia as follows: " Of noble youths and magistrates, many run up through the city half naked, in shaggy hides and striking those who meet them by way of sport and joke." Plutarch appears to have overlooked the religious belief contained in this custom that the torch of the whips (februa) would make the barren women fertile.

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